With two phases of the Niagara Scenic Parkway removal completed, the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation this week announced it is embarking on a scoping process for phase three of the project next month.
According to State Parks spokeswoman Angela Berti, the scoping process, led by Colliers Engineering & Design, will consider broad alternatives for creating a sensitively configured transportation network along the Niagara Gorge between the southern part of Whirlpool State Park on Findlay Drive in Niagara Falls, north to Center Street in the Village of Lewiston.
It will include traffic studies, an environmental review, the development of design alternatives and public engagement, with the entire scoping and preliminary design process expected to wrap up by August 2025.
“At the end of the scoping process, we would have a plan, but we have no preconceived notions about the project at this point,” Berti told The Buffalo News. “I think the overall philosophy is getting people closer to the waterfront and providing less of a highway experience along the parkway.”
Over the course of the past decade, State Parks, in close coordination with the state Department of Transportation, Empire State Development and the New York Power Authority, has been working to ameliorate a design blunder made more than 60 years ago that separated the City of Niagara Falls from one of the nation’s most dramatic riverfronts. Those efforts allowed for the historic removal of 3 miles of limited-access expressway segments of what was previously known as the Robert Moses Parkway along the Upper Niagara River above the falls and the Niagara River Gorge below the falls.
The result, following the completion of the first phase of the parkway removal in 2018, was a pedestrian-friendly park road and new landscaping that evokes Frederick Law Olmsted’s original design. Other enhancements include the creation of new trails and more…
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